


In Norwa Land There Lived a Maid

by firecat



Category: English and Scottish Popular Ballads - Francis James Child
Genre: Gen, POV Second Person, Scottish Folklore & Mythology, Sea Monsters, Seals (Ambiguous), Selkies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-06
Updated: 2020-07-06
Packaged: 2021-03-04 19:28:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 196
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25101667
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/firecat/pseuds/firecat
Summary: In the Shetland/Orkney folk song "The Grey Silkie of Sule Skerry" (Child ballad no. 113) a young woman sings to her infant son that she doesn't know who his father is. Later a grey silkie enters her bedroom and says he's the boy's father.I have always wondered how she and the grey silkie originally met. Here's how it might have begun.
Kudos: 3
Collections: Froday Flash Fiction Little & Monthly Specials 2020





	In Norwa Land There Lived a Maid

**Author's Note:**

> FFFC 100th Special Challenge  
> Table D: Fairytale/Fantasy/SciFi  
> Written for the prompt: 3. sea monster

You’d thought it was a dream at the time.

Your little fishing boat. The sun sparkling on the sea. The hiss of waves hitting the sand. The salt smell, the bracken. The figure on the distant rock, humped and brown, like it can’t make up its mind if it’s of the sea or of land. Then a pack of seals surround your boat, and you fear that they’ll steal your hard-won catch. 

As they crowd closer, ramming the hull, pulling at the oars with their flippers, and your boat capsizes—you fear that they’ll steal your life. 

In your panic and confusion, it seems some of them, just for a second, have a human face. An angry face. And you think you hear them whisper in your mind:

> _"You! You do not belong here!"_

You wake up on the sand. Your little boat pulled up next to you. A strange tangle of seaweed and shells looped around the oarlock, looking for all the world like a necklace. 

You take it home with the meager catch and hang it on your bed, because you like seashells and the seaweed smell. 

That was the first night he came.

**Author's Note:**

> YouTube video of my favorite rendition of the song, by Jean Redpath:  
> <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z58K0XHGXTw>
> 
> Lyrics to the version of the song sung by Jean Redpath:  
> <http://mysongbook.de/msb/songs/s/silkie.html>


End file.
